Wisconsin town on edge with search for missing teen, parents found shot to death
BARRON COUNTY, Wis.— On a normal Wednesday, 13-yearold Jayme Closs would have strode into the dance studio in Rice Lake under the glow of an autumn sunset to practice her jazz moves and get measured for a recital costume after a summer growth spurt.
On a normal Wednesday, her mother, Denise, would have chatted with the folks working the front desk, maybe shared a small joke or two, then driven her daughter to religion classes.
But these are not normal times in Barron County. The killings of Denise Closs and her husband, James, in their home on the outskirts of Barron and the disappearance of their daughter have led to a nationwide search for the girl and put people on edge.
“There’s a lot of fear, there’s a lot of anxiety through the kids, through the adults,” dance studio owner Christine Fink said as children rehearsed in rooms behind her Wednesday afternoon. “It’s opened our eyes that it can happen here.”
That painful reality was driven home when Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald announced at a news conference Wednesday that autopsies showed that the couple had been shot to death. In disclosing that detail, the sheriff issued yet another public plea for help in finding Jayme, who was in the home at the time of the killings and has not been seen since.
“Is it a random attack or a target
attack? I don’t know that answer,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s why those leads are so important.”
The sheriff said that deputies arrived at the house early Monday morning within 4 minutes of the end of a 911 call from the residence, but found no suspects or gun and no sign of Jayme, who was ruled out as a suspect early on.
In the three days since, an Amber Alert has been issued to spread the word about her disappearance and dozens of investigators have tracked and dissected more than 400 tips. So far, however, they have yet to locate the girl, who officials fear is in grave danger.
Fitzgerald said Wednesday that investigators have established no motive for the killings and “have received no tips of a credible sighting” of Jayme. He added that there also are no viable suspects.
Nevertheless, he said investigators still have a “100 percent expectation” that the teen is alive.
“We want to bring Jayme home and put that smile back in her family’s hands,” he said.
Fitzgerald has yet to say how long the parents were dead before the bodies were discovered the 911 call brought deputies to the home, which is set back in woods along Hwy. 8 just west of town. Family members told CBS News in a telephone interview that the front door of the family’s home was shot in.
The sheriff said earlier this week that investigators could hear a disturbance in the background during the 911 call, but that no one talked to dispatchers.